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Conferences are hardly ever this much fun
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| Brandenburger Tor |
In the past few months I've done little if any traveling, so it felt like quite a relief when the time came to get ready for my trip to Berlin. For some reason, I never felt so excited for a trip. However, I was scared that, with my high expectations and general love for Munich and Southern Germany, I might not be too fond of Berlin. That was not the case. As I walked down Unter den Linden and Straße des 17. Juni towards the West I realized all over again why I love German the culture, history, and, of course, language. I quickly became a fan of Berlin.
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| Gedächtniskirche |
Not only is so much to see, there's a lot to do. So much that I could have spent a lot more time there, even lived there. From the five days that I was there, I only scratched the surface of what the city has to offer. There was a plethora of bars and other nightlife venues, international restaurants on every street corner, a flood of museums for every history buff, and much much more.
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| Bundestag |
So what did *I* do there? Well, it was the Fulbright conference, so we did unfortunately stay inside our very luxurious hotel eating like
kings, drinking like Dionysus worshipers, networking with people all over the world, and partaking in panel discussions. From eight in the morning to three in the wee hours I was doing something, trying to balance both the Fulbright and Berlin experience.
The SHORT list of interesting happenings:
-took a tour of the Bundestag (German Parliament
-saw the Brandenburger Tor
-had GREAT Mexican food at a restaurant called Dolores
-was bombarded by street hookers.
-got lost several times in the main train station and so frustrated with the public transportation system so much that I ended up just walking most places.
-sat in a building known as the Pregnant Oyster
-made several friends studying from all over in Europe -was told I had no accent in German.
-had Currywurst where it was supposedly born and didn't care much for it. Giessen's is better.
-bought a bar of chocolate for 8 Euros in KaDeWe that was SO worth it.
-visited the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp and Memorial
-was asked to participate in a protest to provide toilets for everyone. yeah.
-toured the sleeziest yet sexiest part of Berlin also known as Kreuzberg
-saw homos kissing in a box.
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| Toilet Demonstration |
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| Memorial for Persecuted Homosexuals |
And so much more, but those are the highlights.
All in all, Berlin is a place everyone has to visit once in their lifetime. All the pictures and words never can never do the city enough justice.
Until next time-- after my Europe in 9 days with the 'rents-- I'm outta here!
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